Independent wait list monitor needed: HFANZ

November 10, 2014

MEDIA RELEASE – FOR IMMEDIATE USE

Independent wait list monitor needed: HFANZ

In the wake of yet another study critical of access to public surgery, health insurers are calling for regular independent monitoring of elective surgery need.

Health Funds Association of New Zealand (HFANZ) chief executive Roger Styles said today that we needed a robust measure of the level of unmet surgical need, repeated on a regular basis, and with some forecasting.

“The continued use of sanitised statistics by the Government may be good politics but tells us nothing about the state of access to elective surgery,” he said.

“Official wait times are meaningless, as you can only get on the list if you can be seen in that time. This means there are tens of thousands of people who aren’t even being counted.”

Earlier this year, Mr Styles was critical of the Government’s plan to collect data on the level of referred need, saying this would be grossly misleading as it measured just a small subset of the total need.

This data had been collected by the Ministry of Health since July this year but has not yet been made public.

Mr Styles believes the reason it hasn’t been made public is because it so grossly underestimates the true level of need that the numbers would attract wide criticism from health professionals and the public. He is now calling on the Government to release the figures immediately.

A study last year conducted by HFANZ and the Private Surgical Hospitals Association showed 280,000 people were waiting for elective surgery, 170,000 of whom were not even on waiting lists. The average public wait for surgery from the time of first GP referral was 224 days. However, there was no wait in the private system, as private patients were seen promptly.

Mr Styles said today that good data was essential, but it needed to be robust, independent and meaningful.

The health insurance industry is concerned that many elderly have believed the Government spin on elective surgery and let their health insurance lapse, only to find they face a lengthy wait in pain when they need elective surgery.

Mr Styles said this had caused unnecessary physical and financial stress to many people.

“And it has backfired on the Government as taxpayers will now have to fund that surgery – albeit after a lengthy waiting time.”

ENDS

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